I've been meaning to replace our emoticons with a Sonic theme, and now I have.

Oh really? Well I'll be! Very nice! 8)

Awesome!
Although I think the old ones should be kept as a secondary set..

I like this idea, Zez. It's gone very well! :( XD

It is still quite hard to tell the expressions, though.

Sonic approves.

Hmm...these look awfully familiar. Sonic Blast, perhaps?

Pianta wrote:Hmm...these look awfully familiar. Sonic Blast, perhaps?

No, Sonic Online.

Screenshot from Sonic Blast
http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa371/EeveeEverlasting/Untitled.png?t=1293700314

Please refrain from stealing from our site, thank you.

Black Gatomon wrote:Screenshot from Sonic Blast
http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa371/EeveeEverlasting/Untitled.png?t=1293700314

Please refrain from stealing from our site, thank you.

They're from Sonic online. I don't see how the emoticons are stolen.

Black Gatomon wrote:Screenshot from Sonic Blast
http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa371/EeveeEverlasting/Untitled.png?t=1293700314

Please refrain from stealing from our site, thank you.

Did your site create those emoticons? If not then Zezima has all the right to use them.
Zezima said he got them from Sonic Online.
Not to mention that some of the emoticons TSC is currently using ( Oops :D lol ) don't match the smilies seen on Sonic Blast.
1. More than one site is using the emoticons... according to Zezima's testimony.
2. Some of the emoticons don't match.

This leads me to believe that the emoticons were created by a third party and were simply used on your forum.
You could argue that the you HAD those missing smilies Zezima is now using on TSC, and that Sonic Online copied your smilies aswell (rendering my two points... well, pointless), but Zezima only installed the smilies recently. I've check Sonic Blast and there were no recent announcements about the removal of smilies.
I doubt you removed any of the smilies without raising any public awareness. I also doubt Zezima planned to download your smilies and wait until you removed some only to upload them months later onto his site. That's just ridiculous, and for something as trivial as smilies.

Now, if the smilies AREN'T infact the creation of Sonic Blast staff and/or it's members;
(if it is a member that created the smily you also have to be sure he licensed it to your site and your site alone as he/she could've posted the smilies onto more than just your site)
Zezima DOES have the right to use them as they are publicly available for use and only the creator can claim ownership.


Of course I maybe wrong,
In which case, I give you my most humble and abject apologies.

karkooshy just owned the topic.

karkooshy wrote:

Black Gatomon wrote:Screenshot from Sonic Blast
http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa371/EeveeEverlasting/Untitled.png?t=1293700314

Please refrain from stealing from our site, thank you.

Did your site create those emoticons? If not then Zezima has all the right to use them.
Zezima said he got them from Sonic Online.
Not to mention that some of the emoticons TSC is currently using ( Oops :D lol ) don't match the smilies seen on Sonic Blast.
1. More than one site is using the emoticons... according to Zezima's testimony.
2. Some of the emoticons don't match.

This leads me to believe that the emoticons were created by a third party and were simply used on your forum.
You could argue that the you HAD those missing smilies Zezima is now using on TSC, and that Sonic Online copied your smilies aswell (rendering my two points... well, pointless), but Zezima only installed the smilies recently. I've check Sonic Blast and there were no recent announcements about the removal of smilies.
I doubt you removed any of the smilies without raising any public awareness. I also doubt Zezima planned to download your smilies and wait until you removed some only to upload them months later onto his site. That's just ridiculous, and for something as trivial as smilies.

Now, if the smilies AREN'T infact the creation of Sonic Blast staff and/or it's members;
(if it is a member that created the smily you also have to be sure he licensed it to your site and your site alone as he/she could've posted the smilies onto more than just your site)
Zezima DOES have the right to use them as they are publicly available for use and only the creator can claim ownership.


Of course I maybe wrong,
In which case, I give you my most humble and abject apologies.

All of that is well and good when the emoticons are not in fact made by said site. These emoticons were created by Head Admin, Neo Metallix and our GFX Army. I am one of two Co-Administrators and it was brought to our attention that, once again this website has been using our content as its own.

We're all for you guys wanting to be successful and such, and seeing as how =SB= is one of the top 2-5 largest Sonic communities on the internet, we have had our fair share of copycats, in fact this isn't the first time that this particular site has used content of ours, we do keep tabs on the community as a whole since we are a hot target to clone. Last time we dealt with you guys we didn't sink our teeth in and get you shut down because we want smaller sites to be able to succeed, just not with our content.

Remove the emoticons that were copied from our forum and we will leave you alone, but be warned that this is strike two. Failure to comply with these orders OR stealing content from us again WILL result in genuine effort going towards getting this community shut down, and we have shut down problem sites before, so ignore the demands at your own risk.

Good Day,
Bowie - Sonic Blast Co-Administrator

P.S. Love how posts=rings here too. =P

If you want to talk about it, let's kindly take it outside.

Okay, Mr. Bowie, I understand you feel cheated. However, you're not paying attention. Zezima himself verified the sprites came from Sonic Online. And karkooshy verified that several emoticons are exclusive to the site Sonic Online. So, it is quite possible they took from you and claimed the emoticons were free use. So this does not put us at fault, and thus you are attacking us for something that we had no control over.

This is offensive that you would claim we are thieves. Maybe they are your sprites, but, if they are, you can't claim we're thieves when we've clearly pointed out the source. Threatening to shut us down over emoticons is also quite immature, I hope you realize.

Being a spriter, I know the heinous crime of sprite theft, and thus I understand why you and your fellow associates are hurt over the action. However, I'm guessing you didn't do any research into the matter, for if you did, you'd see we were merely caught in a circumstance, and you threatening to take action against us is wrong.

Now, if you can prove you were the creators of these emoticons, and if you can prove Sonic Online unfairly stole and offered them illegally, then perhaps we can work with this situation to the benefit of both sites.

No need to get emotional over this.


Dang that was bad.

How rude.
You register an account, you accuse Zezima of being a thief and yet you have the audacity to threaten to shut TSC down?
And in public.
You should have the manners to contact Zezima privately and talk about it via PM.
Take it outside as Zezima said.